Lissenung Island Resort, PNG
Lissenung Island Resort PNG is a small little private island with a white sandy beach. Here you are surrounded by tall palm trees, beautiful flowers, magnificent sunsets and traditional bungalows. Surrounded by this beautiful overgrown hideaway are some of the most colorful reefs and the best fish life our planet has to offer.
Lissenung Island Resort in PNG is a 20-minute boat ride from Kavieng, the capital of New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea. The resort was started by Dietmar in early 1996 and it is still all that exists on the island. A total of only eight oceanfront rooms in four duplex bungalows are available. Furnished with wooden floors and spacious verandas, they are spread across the island. Apart from a handful of local staff, you won't see a reason. Imagine this and scale it down, you can easily walk around the island in about 10 – 15 minutes. Deck chairs and a bottle of wine on the beach at sunset are the perfect way to end an exciting day of diving. An age limit of at least 12 years applies to guarantee a relaxed and calm atmosphere. With a maximum of 16 guests, you are guaranteed personal service and that your holiday will be truly exclusive!
Very good food
The main house, or “haus win”, offers comfortable chairs on a sand floor. This is where cold drinks and delicious meals await you. Fresh seafood such as fish, crabs and lobsters (crayfish) are high on a menu that changes daily. Special dietary requirements can be accommodated upon request. Please inform us about them as early as possible as the supply of food can sometimes be a bit limited.
Many of the ingredients used in the resort's cuisine come from the local market in Kavieng. Sometimes it is bought from locals who come directly to the island or meet our boat at dive sites. They buy fresh fruits like pineapples, bananas, star fruit as well as all seafood from these people. Some vegetables and fruits are even grown in the island's own small veggie garden. But wherever the food comes from, you can't get any fresher and more organic than this! It also means that there will be an intimate relationship between the resident and the resort and thereby a greater interest in preserving the fantastic reefs here. Beer and wine are available on site, but feel free to bring spirits from the duty free shop as they are often not available in PNG. If there is, it is normally extremely expensive.
All buildings are built in traditional style with thatched roofs and walls made of woven bamboo. They blend in with their surroundings and are very environmentally friendly. The local building materials are surprisingly strong and can withstand even the strongest rainstorms. Local artefacts complete the picture and give the buildings that fantastic PNG atmosphere. In addition to diving, there is also good surfing here and it is possible to make trips to the main island of New Ireland. Sometimes it works liveaboard up here as well and then they usually pass here and then on to or from the town of Kavieng. Contact us for your diving trip to Papua New Guinea, regardless of whether it is a resort or a liveaboard or other combination.
All pictures with © approval from Lissenung Island Resort, Papua New Guinea
Standard fan
All rooms have a double bed or two single beds, private shower in three and a bungalow shares a bathroom in two rooms. There is a fan and mosquito nets and all windows have nets and no glass. Table for camera equipment, porch with patio
Diving on Lissenung Island
New Ireland is known for its pelagic fish, but it needs flowing water to attract big fish. These currents can sometimes be strong and make diving a bit difficult. But the experienced diving staff will take care of you and make sure you will be rewarded with world class diving.
Keep in mind that nature rules and strong currents (and pelagic species) cannot be guaranteed to occur daily or go in the right direction. There are no working tide tables for the Kavieng area. In other locations, it is normal for incoming and outgoing tides to normally move at a 6-hour interval. Lissenung Island Resort in PNG can have a 10 hour outgoing tide followed by a 3 hour incoming tide. It can then be followed by another 9 hours of outgoing and then 7 hours of incoming…….
It is wrong to come to Kavieng expecting to see only big fish and lots of sharks. In these waters there is much to see and experience. Also, look beyond the pelagics and keep an open mind to what diving has to offer. After all, Papua New Guinea is part of the Coral Triangle and has some of the most biodiverse reefs in the world!
Daily diving with a variety of both places and times
Daily boat trips to the outer reefs, wall dives and wrecks with a maximum of three dives per day are offered. You usually start at 8.30am with two dives tomorrow and return to the island for lunch. In the afternoon you can either go out for a third boat dive, relax on the island or do a shore dive on the fantastic house reef. For divers who live at Lissenung and book boat dives in the morning, these shore dives are free. With 350 different species of fish, this is a nice little added bonus! Husrevet is also the place to do night dives. Then another whole lot of different fish, molluscs and crustaceans come out to play and hunt. The water temperature in this area varies from 28 – 30° degrees all year round. Visibility normally varies from 20 – 40m on most dives.
Due to the fact that the resort is a dedicated diving resort and thus works around diving, the departure times may change to suit you and other guests' wishes and/or conditions. This means you may need to leave at 8am to catch an incoming stream and hopefully plenty of fish at the chosen dive site for that day.